bioavailability & bioequivalence

2. Content
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Objective
Introduction
Definition
Objective
Signification
Components
Measurement of bioavailability
1. Pharmacokinetic (indirect)
2. Pharmacodynamic (direct)
conclusion

3. Objective
To study various objective of bioavailability.
To known significance of bioavailability.
To study various measurement parameters used in
measurement of bioavailability.
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4. Introduction
• Bioavailability (denoted as F and generally expressed as a
percentage, F%) quantifies the proportion of a drug which is
absorbed and available to produce systemic effects.
• Bioavailability is a fundamental property of a pharmaceutical
product for a given route of administration.
• It should be known and shown to be reproducible for all drug
products intended to produce a systemic effect.
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5. The therapeutic effectiveness of a drug depends upon the
ability of the dosage form to deliver the medicament to its site
of action at a rate and amount sufficient to elicit the desired
pharmacological response.
This attribute of the dosage form is referred to as
physiological availability, biological availability or simply,
bioavailability.
For most drugs, the pharmacological response can be related
directly to the plasma levels.
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6.  “Bioavailability is a term used to indicate the fractional extent
to which a dose of drug reaches its site of action or a biological
fluid from which the drug has access to its site of action.”
(Goodman & Gillman).
 “The term Bioavailability is defined as a rate & extent (amount)
of absorption of unchanged drug from its dosage form.”
(Brahmankar & Jaiswal)
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7. Other Definitions
• Brand-name drug: A brand-name drug is a drug marketed under a
proprietary, trademark-protected name.
• Generic drug: A generic drug is the same as a brand- name drug in
dosage, safety, strength, how it is taken, quality, performance, and
intended use.
• Pharmaceutical equivalents: Drug products are con- sidered to be
pharmaceutical equivalents if they contain the same active
ingredient(s), have the same dosage form and route of
administration, and are identical in strength or concentration.
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8. • Pharmaceutical alternatives: These are drug products that
contain the same active moiety but contain different
chemical forms such as esters or salts of the active moiety or
they may differ from the innovator’s product in the dosage
form or strength.
• Reference listed drug (RLD): A reference listed drug is an
approved drug product to which new generic versions are
compared to show that they are bioequivalent.
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9. If the size of the dose to be administered is same, then bioavailability
of a drug from its dosage form depends upon 3 major factors :
1. Pharmacological factors related to physicochemical properties of
the drug and characteristics of the dosage form.
2. Patient – related factors.
3. Route of administration.
Within the parenteral route, intravenous injection of a drug results
in 100% bioavailability as the absorption process is bypassed.
However, for reason of stability and convenience, most drug are
administered orally.
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10. In such cases, the dose available to the patient, called as the bio
available dose, is often less than the administered dose.
The amount of drug that reaches the systemic circulation (i.e. extent
of absorption) is called as systemic availability or simply availability.
The term bio available fraction F, refers to the fraction of
administered dose that enters the systemic circulation.
Bio available dose
F = ---------------------------------
Administered dose
To exert an optimal therapeutic action an active moiety should be
delivered to its site of action in an effective concentration for the desired
period.
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11.  Bioavailability studies are important in the –
1. Primary stages of development of a suitable dosage form for
a new drug entity to obtain evidence of its therapeutic utility.
2. Determination of influence of
- excipients,
- patient related factors,
- possible interaction with other drugs on the efficiency of
absorption.
3. Development of new formulations of the existing drugs.
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12. Cont…
4. Control of quality of a drug product during the early stages
of marketing in order to determine the influence of processing
factors, storage and stability on drug absorption.
5. Comparison of availability of a drug substance from different
dosage forms or form the same dosage form produced by
different manufacturers.
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13. Significance of Bioavailability
Drugs having low therapeutic index, e.g. cardiac glycosides,
quinidine, phenytoin etc. and narrow margin of safety e.g.
antiarrythmics, antidiabetics, adrenal steroids, theophylline .
Drugs whose peak levels are required for the effect of drugs, e.g.
phenytoin, phenobarbitone, primidone, sodium valporate, anti-
hypertensives, antidiabetics and antibiotics.
Drugs that are absorbed by an active transport, e.g. amino acid
analogues, purine analogues etc.
In addition, any new formulation has to be tested for its
bioavailability profile.
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14. Drugs which are disintegrated in the alimentary canal and liver,
e.g.chlorpromazine etc. or those which under go first pass
metabolism.
Formulations that give sustained release of drug, formulations with
smaller disintegration time than dissolution rate and drugs used as
replacement therapy also warrant bioavailability testing.
Drugs with steep dose response relationship i.e. drugs obeying
zero order kinetics / mixed order elimination kinetics ( e.g.
warfarin , phenytoin, digoxin, aspirin at high doses,
phenylbutazone)
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15. • Rate of absorption – The rapidity with which the drug is
absorbed.
- Rapid onset : conditions like acute attack of asthma,
intense acute pain
- Slower onset : To prolong duration of action.
To avoid adverse effects.
• Extent of absorption -chronic conditions like Epilepsy.
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16. Absolute Bioavailability ( F )
• Definition
“When the systemic availability of a drug administered orally is
determined in comparison to its intravenous administration ,is
called as absolute bioavailability”.
Dose (iv) x AUC (oral)
% Absorption = ------------------------------- x 100
Dose (oral) x AUC (iv)
• It is denoted by symbol F.
• Its determination is used to characterize a drug’s inherent
absorption properties from the e.v. Site. 16

17. Relative Bioavailability ( Fr )
Definition
“When the systemic availability of the drug after oral
administration is compared with that of oral standard of same
drug ( such as aqueous or non aqueous solution or a suspension )
is referred as Relative Bioavailability or comparative ”.
e.g. comparison between cap. Amox and susp. Amox
It is used to characterize absorption of a drug from its
formulation.
It is denoted by symbol Fr.
Fr = AUC A
AUC B 17BINDIYA R. PATEL

18. Single Dose vs Multiple Dose Studies
• Single dose study
Advantages
• More common
• Easy
• less tedious
• Less exposure to drug.
• Difficult to predict steady state characteristics.
Disadvantages
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19. Multiple dose study
Advantages
 Accurate.
 Easy to predict the peak & valley characteristics of drug.
 Few blood samples required.
 Ethical.
 Small inter subject variability .
 Better evaluation of controlled release formulations.
 Can detect non linearity in pharmacokinetics.
 Higher blood levels ( d/t cumulative effect ).
 Eliminates the need for long wash out period between doses.
Disadvantages
 Poor subject compliance .
 Tedious , time consuming.
 More drug exposure.
 More difficult and costly.
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20.  Patients : used in multiple dose studies.
 Advantages
1. Patient gets benefited from the study.
2. Reflects better therapeutic efficacy.
3. Drug absorption pattern in disease states evaluated.
4. Avoids ethical quandary.
 Disadvantages
1. Disease states , other drugs affects study
2. Difficult to follow stringent study conditions. 20

21.  Healthy human volunteers
i. Young
ii. Healthy
iii. Male ( females : e.g. OC pills study )
iv. Body wt. within narrow range.
v. Restricted dietary & fixed activity conditions.
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22. Pharmacokinetic
(Indirect )
1. Plasma level
time studies
2. Urinary
excretion studies
Pharmacodynamic
(Direct )
1. Acute
pharmacological
response
2. Therapeutic
response
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23. • Pharmacokinetic method
1. Based on assumption that the pharmacokinetic profile reflects the
therapeutic effectiveness of drug.
2. These are indirect method.
• Pharmacodynamic method
1. Involves direct measurement of drug effect on a (patho) physiological
process as a function of time.
2. It is direct measurement.
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24. 1. Plasma level-time studies
• The method is based on the assumption of 2 dosage forms that
exhibit superimposable plasma level time profiles in a group of
subject should result in identical therapeutic activity.
• With single does study, the method requires collection of serial
blood samples for a period of 2 to 3 biological half lives after drug
administration, their analysis for drug concentration and making a
plot of concentration versus corresponding time of sample
collection to obtain the plasma level – time profile.
• With i.v. Does, sampling should start within 5 minutes of drug
administration and subsequent samples taken at 15 minute
intervals.
With single dose study
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25. • The three parameters of plasma level time studies which are
considered important for determining bioavailability are:
1. AUC: The AUC is proportional to the total amount of drug
reaching the systemic circulation, and thus characterizes the
extent of absorption.
2. Cmax: Gives indication whether drug is sufficiently absorbed
systemically to provide a therapeutic response. It is a function of
both the rate and extent of absorption. Cmax will increase with an
increase in the dose, as well as with an increase in the
absorption rate.
3. Tmax: The Tmax reflects the rate of drug absorption, and decreases
as the absorption rate increases. 25

26. • The extent of bioavailability can be determined by following
equation:
[AUC]oral Div
F = ------------------------
[AUC]iv Doral
[AUC]test Dstd
Fr = -----------------------
[AUC]test Dstd
Where, D = dose administered and subscript iv and oral indicates the
route of administration.
Subscript test and std indicates the test and standard doses of
same drug .
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27. With multiple dose administration
• The method involves drug administration for atleast 5 biological
half lives a dosing interval equal to or greater than the biological
half life (i.e. Adminstration of at least 5 doses) to reach the steady
state.
• The extent of bioavailability is given as:
[AUC]test Dstd τ test
Fr = ----------------------------
[AUC]test Dstd τ std
where, τ = dosing interval
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28. • Bioavailability can also be determined from peak plasma
concentration at steady state Css,max according to following
equation: [Css,max]test Dstd τ test
Fr = ----------------------------------
[Css, max]test Dstd τ std
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29. 2. Urinary Excretion studies
• These studies are based on the premise that urinary excretion of
the unchanged drug is directly proportional to the plasma
concentration of total drug.
• As a rule of thumb, determination of bioavailability using urinary
excretion data should be conducted only if at least 20% of
administered dose is excreted unchanged in the urine.
• The study is particularly useful for
1. Drugs that extensively excreted unchanged in the urine.
For example: thiazide diuretics, sulfonamides.
2. Drug that have urine as the site of action.
For example: Urinary antiseptics : nitrofurantoin, Hexamine.
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30.  The method involves
1. Collection of urine at regular intervals for a time span equal to 7
biological half lives.
2. Analysis of unchanged drug in the collected sample.
3. Determination of the amount of drug excreted in each interval
and cumulative excreted.
 For obtaining valid result following criteria must be followed
1. At each sample collection, total emptying of the bladder is
necessary to avoid errors.
2. Frequent sampling of urine is also essential in the beginning.
3. The fraction excreted unchanged in urine must remain constant.
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31.  The three major parameters examined in urinary excretion
data are as follow:
1. (dXu/dt)max : It gives the rate of appearance of drug in the urine is
proportional to its concentration in systemic circulation. Its value
increases as the rate of and/or extent of absorption increases
2. (tu)max : It is analogous to the plasma level data, its value
decreases as the absorption rate increases.
3. Xu : It is related to the AUC of plasma level data and increases as
the extent of absorption increases.
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32. Plot of urinary excretion rate versus time.
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33.  The extent of bioavailability is calculated from equation
[Xu∞]oral x D iv
F = -------------------------------
[ Xu∞]iv x D oral
[Xu∞]test x D std
Fr = -------------------------------
[ Xu∞]std x D test
[Xu,ss]test x D std x τ test
Fr = -----------------------------------
[ Xu,ss]std x D test x τ std
 With multiple dose study
 Where (Xu,ss) is the amount of drug excreted unchanged during
a single interval at steady state. 33

34. B. Pharmacodynamic methods
1) Acute Pharmacological Response :
 Used when pharmacokinetic methods are difficult, inaccurate & non
reproducible an acute pharmacological effect such as
- E.g. 1. Change in ECG/EEG readings.
2. Pupil diameter.
Disadvantages :
1. More variable and accurate correlation between measured
response and available from the formulation is difficult.
2. Active metabolite interferes with the result.
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35. 2 ) Therapeutic Response :
 Measurement of clinical response to a drug formulation given to
patients suffering from disease for which it is intended to be used.
 Disadvantages :
1. Improper quantification of observed response.
2. Bioequivalence studies are usually conducted using a crossover
design.
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36. • Difficult for drugs with a long elimination half life.
• Highly variable drugs may require a far greater number of
subjects
• Drugs that are administered by routes other than the oral
route drugs/dosage forms that are intended for local effects
have minimal systemic bioavailability.
E.g. ophthalmic, dermal, intranasal and inhalation drug
products.
• Biotransformation of drugs make it difficult to evaluate the
bioequivalence of such drugs: e.g. stereoisomerism
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37.  Bioavailability is a key pharmacokinetic parameter which
must be systematically estimated for a new drug
formulation or a new modality of administration.
 Many possible approaches exist to evaluate both rate and
extent of bioavailability, including situations for which
intravenous drug admin- istration is not possible.
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38. • Toutain, P. L., Bousquet-Me ´lou, A. Bioavailability and its
assessment. J. vet. Pharmacol. Therap. 27, 455–466.
• Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics A treatise by D. M.
Brahmankar , Sunil B. Jaiswal, second edition, Vallabh
Prakashan, pg. No. 315 – 363.
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